Brother John Alting SVD has been a missionary in Papua New Guinea, Angola, Central Australia and Timor Leste and says while his experiences have been different in each place, there has been one common thread – the joy of being with the people.
Born and raised in Sydney, Br John says he was attracted to the life of a religious from when he was a young man.
“I was attracted to the SVDs because with them you almost certainly work overseas unless you don’t want to,” he says. “But I have always wanted to, and still do!”
A trained nurse, Br John joined the Divine Word Missionaries in 1997, taking his final vows in 2004.
He has been working in Timor Leste for almost two years now, following several years serving the health needs of the remote indigenous communities of Canteen Creek and Epenara, about three hours south-east of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
“I’m living in a town on the south coast of Timor Leste called Uatolari, in the east of the country,” he says.
“The whole area is more prosperous than many other areas in Timor Leste, probably because it rains more here. So that means more rice yield, more foliage for animals like cattle, goats, pigs, and chickens, of which there are many.”
Most people in the semi-rural area have rice fields, gardens and animals and most children attend school.
“I am the only ‘Malai mutin (white man) in the subdistrict,” he says.
Br John works in a small health clinic run by the Holy Spirit Sisters, the sister order to the Divine Word Missionaries.
“I work as a nurse, and am registered as such here in Timor Leste,” he says. “But there aren’t so many patients, so there is a lack of serious nursing work.”
With a missionary spirit of responding to need, Br John is open to suggestions he might teach English in his spare time, or maybe be transferred to Dili to teach English to the seminarians, who are now being trained in Timor Leste.
Br John says that throughout his missionary life, it has been the local people he has lived and work amongst who have welcomed him into their lives and shown him what it means to be a missionary today.
“The great joy of working here is the people, who are very nice and friendly,” he says. “And, living in a community of faith is also inspiring, as the great majority of the population are believing Catholics who are serious about their faith.”